Pressure Quotes - Page 20

• Englishmen rarely cry, except under the pressure of the acutest grief; whereas in some parts of the Continent the men shed tears much more readily and freely.

  Charles Darwin

  Grief, Men, Tears

  Charles Darwin, Sir Francis Darwin (2010). “The Works of Charles Darwin, Volume 23: The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals”, p.117, NYU Press

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• As he paid the hansom and followed his wife's long train into the house he took refuge in the comforting platitude that the first six months were always the most difficult in marriage. 'After that I suppose we shall have pretty nearly finished rubbing off each other’s angles,' he reflected; but the worst of it was that May's pressure was already bearing on the very angles whose sharpness he most wanted to keep

  Edith Wharton

  Wife, Long, House

  Edith Wharton (2006). “The Age of Innocence”, p.148, OUP Oxford

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• Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit. Never having been a human (Oh that abominable advantage of the Enemy's) you don't realize how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary.

  C. S. Lewis

  Enemy, Ordinary, Spirit

  C. S. Lewis (2009). “The Screwtape Letters”, p.2, Harper Collins

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• The pressure of his touch through my jacket and my sweater was more assurance than any promise ever made to me. It was a touch that said, I have your back and I am here for you. If a girl wasn't careful, she could fall in love with a touch like that.

  Justina Chen

  Girl, Falling In Love, Sweaters

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• We want to believe in the essential, unchanging goodness of people, in their power to resist external pressures, in their rational appraisal and then rejection of situational temptations. We invest human nature with God-like qualities, with moral and rational faculties that make us both just and wise. We simplify the complexity of human experience by erecting a seemingly impermeable boundary between Good and Evil.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Wise, Believe, People

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• It didn't come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God.

  Ray Bradbury

  Technology, Government, Thank God

  Ray Bradbury (2016). “Fahrenheit 451”, p.28, Hamilton Books

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• From out of nowhere, Phury felt an overwhelming tide of guilt, like someone had popped the lid off all his deepest concerns and his fears for the future of the race. He had to respond to it, couldn't bear the pressure. Riding the wave, he found himself saying in a rush, "We live and die for our kind. The species is our first and only concern. We fight every night and count the jars of thelessers we kill. Stealth is the way we protect the civilians. The less they know about us, the safer they are. That is why we disappeared.

  J.R. Ward

  Fighting, Night, Race

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• Guess what it is that turns plants to coal. Pressure. Guess what it is that turns limestone to marble. Pressure. Guess what it is that turns Briony's heart to stone. Pressure. Pressure is uncomfortable, but so are the gallows. Keep your secrets, wolfgirl. Dance your fists with Eldric's, snatch lightning from the gods. Howl at the moon, at the blood-red moon. Let your mouth be a cavern of stars.

  Franny Billingsley

  Stars, Heart, Moon

  Franny Billingsley (2013). “Chime”, p.134, A&C Black

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• I'm going to brush my hair and change my clothes if we're going out. That gives you two ten minutes to get it out of your system, so I'm not stuck with a couple of frustrated horndogs all day. But no pressure," she added on a laugh as she swung out of the room and started upstairs.

  Lynsay Sands

  Couple, Hair, Two

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• But I have never had the privilege of unhappiness in Happy Valley. California is about the good life. So a bad life there seems so much worse than a bad life anywhere else. Quality is an obsession there—good food, good wine, good movies, music, weather, cars. Those sound like the right things to shoot for, but the never-ending quality quest is a lot of pressure when you’re uncertain and disorganized and, not least, broker than broke. Some afternoons a person just wants to rent Die Hard, close the curtains, and have Cheerios for lunch.

  Sarah Vowell

  Good Life, Wine, Lunch

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• Because of social pressure, individualism is rejected by most people in favor of conformity. Thus the individual relies mainly upon the actions of others and neglects the meaning of his own personal life. Hence he sees his own life as meaningless and falls into the “existential vacuum” feeling inner void. Progressive automation causes increasing alcoholism, juvenile delinquency, and suicide.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Suicide, Fall, People

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• I can become someone else, not out of pressure and desperation, but merely because a new life sounds fun or interesting or joyful.

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Fun, Interesting, Sound

  Chuck Palahniuk (2011). “Damned”, p.181, Random House

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• A kiss can be like the world turning over. It can be like the tide of a dragon's dream washing through the unseen world that is hidden to mortal eyes but that nevertheless permeates our being. It can be hot and cold together, as vast as the heavens and yet specific to the pressure of hands and the parting of lips. It raised more intense feelings than I had expected, like being engulfed in a storm of lightning.

  Kate Elliott

  Dream, Eye, Kissing

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• Love is louder than the pressure to be perfect.

  Miley Cyrus

  Love Is

  "Demi Lovato Tells Teens That 'Love Is Louder' Than Pressure" by James Dinh, www.mtv.com. April 14, 2011.

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• Hurry," she breathed. Man, talk about pressure. He was supposed to get it up while demon hordes were trying to kill him, and Satan himself was knocking at the door.

  Larissa Ione

  Men, Doors, Trying

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• I always feel this pressure of being a strong and independent icon of womanhood, and without making it look my whole life is revolving around some guy. But loving someone, and being loved means so much to me. We always make fun of it and stuff. But isn't everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?

  Julie Delpy

  Strong, Fun, Mean

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• Grief is like sinking, like being buried. I am in water the tawny color of kicked-up dirt. Every breath is full of choking. There is nothing to hold on to, no sides, no way to claw myself up. There is nothing to do but let go. Let go. Feel the weight all around you, feel the squeezing of your lungs, the slow, low pressure. Let yourself go deeper. There is nothing but bottom. There is nothing but the taste of metal, and the echoes of old things, and days that look like darkness.

  Lauren Oliver

  Letting Go, Grief, Echoes

  "Pandemonium". Book by Lauren Oliver, 2012.

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• Discontented women are like pressure cookers. The steam rises and one day they just reach boiling point.

  Bella Pollen

  One Day, Steam, Cookers

  Bella Pollen (2011). “Midnight Cactus”, p.264, Pan Macmillan

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• If you try to avoid every instance of peer pressure you will end up without any peers whatsoever, and the trick is to succumb to enough pressure that you do not drive your peers away, but not so much that you end up in a situation in which you are dead or otherwise uncomfortable. This is a difficult trick, and most people never master it, and end up dead or uncomfortable at least once during their lives.

  Daniel Handler

  People, Trying, Peer Pressure

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• People tend to assess the relative importance of issues by the ease with which they are retrieved from memory—and this is largely determined by the extent of coverage in the media. Frequently mentioned topics populate the mind even as others slip away from awareness. In turn, what the media choose to report corresponds to their view of what is currently on the public’s mind. It is no accident that authoritarian regimes exert substantial pressure on independent media. Because public interest is most easily aroused by dramatic events and by celebrities, media feeding frenzies are common

  Daniel Kahneman

  Memories, Independent, Views

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• The real power of a wolf isn't in its fearsome jaws, which can clench with fifteen hundred pounds of pressure per square inch. The real power of a wolf is having that strength, and knowing when not to use it.

  Jodi Picoult

  Real, Squares, Knowing

  Jodi Picoult (2012). “Lone Wolf: A Novel”, p.62, Simon and Schuster

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• On the eve of long voyages or an absence of many years, friends who are tenderly attached will seperate with the usual look, the usual pressure of the hand, planning one final interview for the morrow, while each well knows that it is but a poor feint to save the pain of uttering that one word, and the meeting will never be. Should possibilities be worse to bear than certainties?

  Charles Dickens

  Pain, Hands, Years

  Charles Dickens (1841). “Master Humphrey's Clock”, p.121

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• [about being a father] I don't really remember what it was like before. Whatever I had going on, it was bullshit. It wasn't important. It's kind of a nice thing about being a dad. My identity is really about them now, and what I can do for them, so it sort of takes the pressure off of your own life. What am I going to do, who am I? Who cares, you've got to get your kids to school. So I like it that way.

  Louis C. K.

  Dad, Nice, School

  "Louis C.K. is more upset by people being mean to Tracy Morgan than homophobia". Interview with Slate, www.slate.com. June 17, 2011.

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• ...as man under pressure tends to give in to physical and intellectual weakness, only great strength of will can lead to the objective.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  Men, Giving, Intellectual

  Carl von Clausewitz (2008). “On War”, p.193, Princeton University Press

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• My whole love and respect is for the person who accepts himself totally, as he is. He has courage. He has courage to face the whole pressure of the society which is bent upon splitting him into divisions — into good and bad, into saint and sinner. He is really a brave, courageous being who stands against the whole history of man, of morality, and declares to the skies his reality, whatever it is.

  Rajneesh

  Spiritual, Reality, Men

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